My children both have their special medical obstacles in which were diagnosed later than sooner if you ask me.
My 15 year old used to always have these "choking" episodes. Repeatedly taking him to the pediatrician, resulted to my giving up and agreeing to her diagnosis. My son "eats too fast, and takes really big bites."
At age 10 he choked on a piece of gum. He said he had no control it slid down his throat, he felt uncomfortable, then collapsed saying he can't breath, his chest hurt. Immediately I called 911. First call made. Luckily it worked its way down... this time. Just a couple months later, the day after Christmas I was setting the table for lunch, what's better than leftover turkey and trimmings right? Before I can even sit with the family, my 10 year old jumps and starts panicking, mom, mom, I'm choking again.... He stands at the sink, and starts attempting to bring up almost nothing! I asked him what did you eat? He said a small bite mom I promise. 1 he's talking, 2 he's breathing, 3 very alert. All in which are very good signs. Only problem is he's telling me it's still in his throat he feels it. I got the phone 911. The APD gets to my house first. Talking to my son out of his panic, my son still bringing up only mucus the paramedics arrived, now blood's also coming up.
They want to do the Heimlich, now I'm definitely NOT in the medical field, but with all the good signs I've listed, why must we crack his ribs? I told them, "Look, something is there he's choking, but he's alert, breathing, and talking" they said we can see that, Ummm really? At this time they didn't notice blood was in my kitchen sink, when I pointed that out, I also had the "Bright Light Bulb" and I said if you don't believe he's choking as it seems nobody does, I had my son drink a tiny bit of water, and it immediately irritated whatever he was choking on there it started again right in front of them. The water wouldn't pass his ESOPHAGUS!!
They grabbed him, wrapped up in a blanket, lights, sirens and I ran off got my stuff together tried to catch up to them and by the time I got to our Local ER, they had Critical Care rushing him to Rainbows downtown.
Finally, we got answers. My son had to get emergency surgery to have the impacted food removed as I thought it would be, LODGED in his Esophagus. The surgeon found a few growths "pockets" we had biopsies of, that each told a story. 10 years worth of food allergies!
Strict diet, NO DAIRY, NO SOY, NO PROTEIN!
How to feed this little guy, was extremely hard.
Perhaps a forum can be started, as I didn't realize I can actually get a story published here LOL, I didn't even get to talk about my 13 year old yet, boy am I winded and late for a seminar...
In either case, we must STRIVE for BETTER, HEALTHIER EATING HABITS!